The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program. More particularly, the invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program whereby the contents of image data recorded on a storage medium such as a cassette tape are readily verified.
Image data picked up by a digital video camera are recorded on a DVC (digital video camera) cassette tape loaded in the camera. At a later date, a user may wish to verify the contents of the image data recorded on the cassette tape. In such a case, a personal computer may be used to display a list of image data retained on the cassette tape. A program for running the computer for the purpose performs a number of steps: playing back the cassette tape on fast forward so as to acquire the image data therefrom, detecting discontinuities in the acquired image data, and displaying images representative of the discontinuities so as to indicate a list of the image data held on the cassette tape.
One disadvantage of the arrangement above is that the program does not guarantee the quality of the image data reproduced from the tape on fast forward. That is, some data required for detecting the discontinuities can get lost, which makes discontinuity detection inaccurate. Another disadvantage is that if the discontinuities were detected from normally reproduced image data, the detection would be performed with precision but it would take an inordinately long time because the entire range of the cassette tape needs to be played back normally.
Furthermore, when thumbnail (bit map) images are obtained from the image data to represent their contents in a visually easy-to-understand manner, the quality of the thumbnails tends to be poor since they are based on the image data reproduced on fast forward. On the other hand, using the normally reproduced image data to prepare thumbnail images would require too much time.
Although it is possible to enter a list of image data recorded on each cassette tape into a database or like facility, the cassette tape in question cannot be associated automatically with that image data list because cassette tapes are given no unique definition information (i.e., identifiers) in a format readable by a personal computer. To ascertain whether an image data list corresponds to a given cassette tape has so far required that the user visually check the label or other indications on the cassette tape in question. The proceedings have proved bothersome and time-consuming.